Monday, September 15, 2008

Around the World (46)

Hello, Around the Worldmusics climbed 5000 ft but stays on the desert bandwidth, and that means we're in Ethiopia, a country steeped in religion, the ten commandments (supposedly) are guarded there. Well since the militairy dictatorship that has run the country have faded, musicians are once again alowed to do their thing and inspired by this Abyssinia Infinite bridges the 20 year gap by bringing the old Ethiopian musicculture into the 21st century with this album..

The overthrow of Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie in a “creeping coup” organized by his own military began two decades of chaotic rule. Under the Derg regime, a curfew was imposed which drove live musicians to prison and unemployment. This album brings back live instrumentation and experimentation to Ethiopian music. This album with acoustic instruments and traditional songs is a return to a classic sound—it picks up right where music left off in the mid-’60s through mid-’70s.

“Ethiopians believe that when Zion is mentioned in the bible they are speaking about Ethiopia,” Gigi explains. With that in mind, the album, Zion Roots, is exactly what the name implies: music rooted deep in Ethiopian culture. On this latest concept project, Gigi was able to realize her longstanding dream of melding elements of East and West African elements into the music of her home country. "This traditional project is something that I wanted to do to keep in touch with the music of Ehtiopia. This does not represent me as a solo artist but more me introducing Ethiopian traditional music in different settings, as a concept project.

Abyssinia Infinite chose the songs for this album to convey a traditional spirit. Though quite sparsely furnished, this music is deep and powerful - a state-of-the-art marriage of ancient (handclaps, flute, harp) and modern technology that aims to transcend both. They use traditional instruments such as the kirar—which is referred to as King David’s harp in the Bible and is perhaps one of the oldest surviving East African instruments—and the washint—a simple bamboo flute. The band is composed of prominent players in the world music community including the magical Senegalese percussionist Aiyb Dieng, the virtuoso tabla-player Karsh Kale, the guitarist/accordionist Tony Cedras (known for his work on Paul Simon's Graceland project), the Ethiopian saxophonist Moges Habte, and world music producer/musician Bill Laswell, with a rare performance on acoustic guitar.